There’s “Me” in Team!

When my IT band told me it wasn’t going away during the Drake Half Marathon last month, one of the reasons I started walking instead of pushing it was because the Market-to-Market Relay was only three weeks away. This is a team relay covering 77 miles from Jefferson, Iowa to the Capitol in Des Moines. Like other races in this area, it’s a well-organized event with a great opportunity to talk with other runners. But what makes this event stand out to me is that I get to be part of a team again.

I realize that for a number of reasons, I’m probably more of a solitary runner than most. But that doesn’t mean I can’t and don’t enjoy being part of a team. Quite the contrary, I have been on a lot of different teams over the years, with each being a unique experience. Market-to-Market brings much of that back to me.

The main picture that I’ve selected for this blog comes from the fall of 1977. These were the harsh days when, if you missed a tv show, you had to wait for a summer rerun since there was no way to record it. Even worse, telephones were these huge devices that you couldn't carry in your pocket. And..., they didn’t connect to the internet because.…we didn’t have an internet! Thank God there was at least running water and penicillin.

Anyway, this is a picture of the Cross-Country team for Sutherlin High School, a small town about an hour south of Eugene, Oregon. We were the District Champions of the new Sky-Em Conference! As much as I’m tempted to say that I’m the best-looking guy in this picture, the truth is, I’m the geeky junior, third from the right in the second row. This was a uniquely memorable season for me. It was when I first started to take running seriously. It’s also noteworthy in that we were the first team at Sutherlin High to bring trophies back to an empty trophy case at our new high school gymnasium. This was the result of both our high school burning down a few years earlier and other SHS teams not doing quite so well in the interim. This season also stands out for me in being the first team I truly felt part of a team.

My first two seasons of cross country and track had been essentially showing up, doing what I was told and not embarrassing myself too badly at the meets. We knew one another on the team. But that was it. We were basically a bunch of goofy kids who didn’t accomplish much of anything on a course or track.

That all changed in the fall of 1977 when that dorky collection of sophomores and juniors became not-quite-as-dorky juniors and seniors. None of us were superstars. But we’d become decent runners who would cluster together for the finish. All of a sudden, we were winning meets and invitationals. As exciting as that success was, it had the unanticipated outcome of making us a team instead of a group of individuals. I recognized that I had a responsibility to everyone else. Even though I was only the number four runner on the boys' team, they needed me to perform at that level because I finished very close to the other three and our number five runner wasn’t as fast. As a team, we started talking more to one another, about races, practices and what we could do to get better. That camaraderie extended beyond practice and meets. We started hanging around together. A few even dated one another. As an example of being a team, we all pitched in on this picture as a gift to our coach, something we decided on to mark a special season. (Long story short - somehow, about ten years ago, I ended up with that picture. And can you believe that my wife won’t let me put it over the mantle in the living room? 😊)

Those bonds did not end with that amazing season. They continued throughout the rest of that year, as we had both success and fun in Track. (Someday, I’ll share the story of how we ultimately dealt with the evil version of Steve Miller.)

Graduations changed things a bit my senior year. It wasn’t all the same people on the Cross Country and Track teams during those seasons. But knowing how much it meant to be part of a team and wanting that same success, I found myself reaching out to the new members of those teams, wanting them to have the same positive experiences that I had had the previous year. The end result was both more success and some wonderfully memorable experiences. (And yes, this includes that race when I was passed by two guys in track who became very close friends, with one of them warning me ahead of time to pick it up or they’ll pass me. You can laugh about it at this link.)

I took that mindset to Umpqua Community College and certainly made my share of friends during two seasons of Cross Country and Track. While I can attest to some fond memories that ranged from seeing Mt. St. Helens erupt to running at the same junior college Aaron Rogers attended, it really wasn’t the same. Most of us lived at home in different communities. We also had different majors. Being college, attrition also played a big role in that each team had a lot of different faces. Although I was still trying for that positive team vibe, it never really connected. If I were to view from a romantic perspective, I was trying way too hard.

Fortunately, that all changed when I transferred to Western Oregon State College (now Western Oregon University). We were an enthusiastic mixture of freshman, sophomores and juniors from all over the state and we almost immediately clicked. With WOSC being a small campus and all of us living there, it was easy to find time to hang around together before and after practice. Our success was mixed throughout my time there, as we competed against impressive schools with very talented athletes. That said, I will note that at the Conference meet for Cross Country during my senior year, while I was back to number 4 again, our top five male runners all finished the five-mile course at or close to a five-minute mile pace.

Much like high school, those strong relationships continued from one season into another. Even though not everyone on the Cross-Country team went out for Track, we remained teammates and friends. Over the years, many of us became roommates and I can attest that when I went through a difficult period in early 1983, I couldn’t have asked for better, more supportive friends. Thanks to social media, many of us remain friends, having shared two reunions with more on the way!

(Sandwiched into all of this is my first and only experience with the Roseburg-Coos Bay Relay in the spring of 1983. Don’t worry, guys, I’m not excluding you. No, that memorable adventure rates a blog of its own in the near future. Does holding a beer can over the edge of a pickup in front of someone ring any bells?)

Being part of a team took on a different aspect as an adult when I ran the Hood to Coast Relay (see below) as part of the same team in the late 80’s and early 90’s. (By that time, you could record TV shows and phones were getting smaller. They still didn’t have cameras in them, but the dark ages were coming to end.) We were a diverse group of varying ages and lifestyles. Most of us at least knew a couple people on the team. And with driving nearly four hours to Timberline Lodge at Mt. Hood and then spending at least twenty-four hours stuffed into a van together, if you didn’t already know someone, you most definitely would by the time the team reached the final leg of the race in Seaside, Oregon. After all these years, I’m afraid I can't recall what we called our team. But I do remember each person on each HTC team, what they were like and what they contributed to those wonderful races and times.

It was that way with the Market-to-Market team in 2019. I only knew two people on the team going into the race but got to know several other people. Due to the pandemic, this will be the first time since then that we’ll be together again (at least most of us as there are a couple of new faces on The Body Project team). As a result, it will be wonderful to connect with both new team members and reconnect with the ones from three years ago. Bottom line - it will be great to be part of a team again!

And I would love to hear any team experiences that any of you have to share!